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So, I’m finally writing again. Jamie and I have been flying (that is driving quickly) across North America – Wisconson, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montanta, British Columbia, Oregon. We’ve been taken in by a Christian summer camp in Frost, MN (pop 400), a jaded environmental lawer in Missoula, MT, the horse-breaking daughter of a logger in St. Ignacias, MT, a queer human rights activist in Vancouver, Jamie’s amazing friend and teacher from her year in India and Nepal, also named Jamie, on Bowen Island, BC, and, most recently, a self-sufficient, off the grid, organic farm and appropriate technology institute/community outside of Cottage Grive, OR. We have camped in incredible places all over the west and currently have our tent set up in a hidden cove on the Oregon coast. I am in love with America for the first time. The emphasis on public land out here in the west is so refreshing. Even in small towns, there seems to be a stronger awareness of the environment, whether as recreational sites, natural resources, or habitats in need of protection. This sensibility is refreshing coming from six months in the suburbs of Chicago. On the prairie of IL, with its high availability of water and complete lack of topographical variation (i.e. no hills or mountains) development sprawls out to the horizon, a grid of cement, steel, and wires which cover and cut the land with no concern for ecology. The West certainly has its evironmental issues – water-use rights, logging, over-hunting, to name a few – but there seems to be more of an active discourse here, or, rather, one that takes place in many more circles.
Another element of discovery on the trip has been my discovery of Buddhism. I suppose Buddhism has never been far from my mind. But I have never so clearly understood that whether Zen or Shambala, I think it is part of my path.
Well, I want to write more but Jamie is waiting and we’re both starving (have to go back to the tent and make polenta). So, whoever is reading this, I love you. Write to me.
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